A Mentor mystery has been solved. The widely reported "unidentified
national specialty retailer" that won approvals from the suburb for a
store at 9470 Mentor Ave. is Trader Joe's, based at Monrovia, Calif.
A request for comment on an Ohio Liquor Permit request for Trader
Joe's at that address is included on the Monday, April 5, Mentor City
Council agenda.
Kenya Friend-Daniel, a Trader Joe's spokeswoman, confirmed the company's interest in the store.
"We are very interested in bringing a store to Mentor and are
taking the necessary steps to make it happen," Friend-Daniel wrote in an
email. "There are a number of things that need to happen before the
store is confirmed." She said it is too early to forecast an opening
date.
Construction crews are fencing the site and preparing to demolish
the Sawyer House, a stone Western Reserve-style farmhouse. It has stood
at that location since 1843. Over the years it also served as offices
and, more recently, a succession of restaurants.
For more than a year, city officials have reviewed plans, and then
last fall approved them, for a nearly 14,000-square-foot specialty
grocer to build on the site without spilling the name, at the company's
request.
The 2.7-acre site of Sawyer House was sold to ABC Mentor LLC, which
lists to the address of Fiorilli Construction Inc., a Medina-based
construction general contractor. Carmen Fiorilli. Fiorilli also formed
ABC Mentor, according to state incorporation records. He declined
comment in a text on Monday.
ABC Mentor on March 1 paid $1.1 million for the site, according to the Lake County auditor's office.
Patrick Dowd, a vice president at Sequoia Realty Inc. of Mentor who
handled the sale for 7338 Mentor LLC, declined to comment on the
prospective operator at the site being Trader Joe's.
However, Dowd did say the property was originally listed for $1.3
million and he had it under contract, more than a year ago, for less
than two weeks.
Kevin Malecek, Mentor director of economic development and
international trade, commented on Trader Joe's only after he was
satisfied that the retailer confirmed the pending plan.
"For many years, members of the Mentor City Council,
administration, and municipal economic development officials have worked
to attract a specialty grocer like Trader Joe's to our community," he
wrote in an email April 5. "Its consideration of a site in Mentor
provides further evidence of the city's stature as a premier consumer
economy in Greater Cleveland and that Mentor officials work tirelessly
to meet the desires of the city's residents."
Trader Joe's is owned by families that are part owners of Aldi Nord
of Essen, Germany. However, it is separately held from Aldi U.S.
stores.
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